


Bathbomb

by rockinellie



Category: Trolls (2016)
Genre: Bathbomb, F/M, Fluff, Singing, snuggles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 07:37:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8569882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockinellie/pseuds/rockinellie
Summary: Poppy finds out Branch has been making something entirely new in his freetime: bathbombs. Fluff ensues.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic, despite being titled 'Bathbomb' does not focus solely around bathbombs or baths in general. So if that's what you're looking for, I suggest looking elsewhere. :P The real question is: will I ever write anything but fluff and cuddles? The answer: Not likely. 
> 
>  
> 
> Song: At Last by Etta James 
> 
> Bathbombs: Inspired by Lush bathbombs. I literally just googled "how to make a bathbomb" and got a recipe and that's what he refers to.

Practicality was kind of Branch’s strong suit. Everyone knew it both before and after they Bergentown Adventure. Even the most cheerful Troll recognized that Branch had a certain way of knowing the most logical route to get things done as quickly as possible. This practicality carried on into every aspect of his life. When it came time to move the Trolls from the village to the tree he had come up with easy ways to split everyone up into Pod-building groups so that way they could finish as quickly as possible. It was his idea to help the older or younger people by signing up in groups to go back and forth. So it was no surprise to Poppy that his new “bunker” was incredibly luxurious. For practical reasons. It was their first month at the new tree when she had found out he had built himself a very nice bathroom including a bathtub. When she had inquired as to why he needed a tub instead of a shower he had told her it made sense because he had to rest his muscles after helping all the Trolls move. It was a few weeks after that that she had helped him finish smoothing out the walls in his living room. Both of them were coated in mud and after teasing him about how big of a mess he had made, he had offered the bath to her first.

Gleefully (for she loved baths) she had accepted and skipped off to his bathroom. After figuring out how to get hot water pouring in the tub, which was a can that Bridget had smoothed out for him, she looked around his bathroom idly. To her surprise there were a few containers on the counter of his sink with lids on them. Each one was labeled: Glitter, Without, Scented. Curiously she opened ‘Scented’ and had no clue what she was staring at. There were a bunch of orbs inside the container, each one seemed kind of dusty and they were in a variety of colors. Clearly they weren’t any kind of fruit but she’d never quite seen anything like them before. She pulled one out and pressed it to her nose, inhaling deeply. Faintly she could detect the hint of lavender. Turning the bathtub off she wrapped one of his towels around herself, holding it closed with one hand and holding the orb in the other. 

Branch himself was sitting on the floor of his house, looking over a book and trying not to get mud on everything he owned. The excited hopping into the living room brought his attention up to her and he stared at her. Before he could ask why she was in a towel she held the orb out towards him.

“What’s this?”

“Oh,” Branch smiled, standing up and crossing the room to her. He took it from her hand and said, “Come on, I’ll show you. You’ll like this.”

Together they made their way back to the bathroom, Poppy hopping alongside his casual stride. Curiosity was burning brightly in her gut now. If he said she would like it she was certain she would! What it could be was still beyond her, however, and she paid attention when they entered the bathroom again as if he would spin around and reveal some sort of magic trick. Branch paused and turned to look her over. Seemingly he decided on something and opened the “scented” container again, dropping the orb inside. Then he opened “glitter” and pulled a purple one out. The one she had retrieved was beige in color so this was clearly a step up! Delighted she waited for him to show her exactly what it did, but to her surprise he knelt beside the tub and gestured for her to join him. Shortly she knelt beside him, their bare arms brushing against each other. Blushing, he pulled away and cleared his throat.

“Watch.” With that he dropped the glittery, purple orb into the bathtub water. The effect was immediate. The water started bubbling where the orb had dropped in and the water slowly turned from clear to a lavender color, swirls of pink glitter lifting to the top. Branch had a small smile on his face, which was nothing compared to Poppy’s slack-jawed pure awe. Amazingly she kept her grip on her towel as she almost plunged face-first into the bathwater. His arm gently caught her as she tipped forward unevenly.

“What!” Poppy cried, jumping to her feet and out of his grip. “What is it!? That was so cool! Can you do it again? What are they? Can we put in ten?”

Branch scrambled to his feet, blocking her from the containers, “Woah, woah! No, you can’t put ten in! It’ll destroy the bathroom!”

“How about five?!” Poppy leaned over him, trying to snatch at the “glitter” container again, laughing wildly as he had to restrain her. His arms wrapped around her middle and he hoisted her up and carried her out to the bedroom, putting her on the floor there. Playfully she stuck her tongue out at him-this was met with a rolling of his eyes-and then she stopped suddenly. So suddenly and so still that he jerked his head back.

“What? Poppy?”

Poppy’s head shook after a moment, “Wait, how do you know ten would ruin the bathroom? Where did you get them?”

“I made them,” Branch said, surprised. “Where else would they have come from?”

“Good point. I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Poppy tried to go around him and with some hesitation he let her go back into the bathroom. She knelt by the tub and put her arm in, swirling the glitter around. “It’s beautiful. Why did you make them?”

“I thought it would be nice to have something that did the majority of my cleaning for me. I’m a pretty busy guy what with prepping and all that. I can’t waste hours in the tub trying to get dirt and grime off me if something happens-like smoothing out dirt walls and floors.” Branch leaned against the doorframe, shrugging.

Poppy considered this and then smiled, “Oh, I see! So you made like, neutral scented ones?”

“Exactly! I decided to just take my soap and combine it with salt and acid and baking soda. Then when I did that, it foamed up like you saw and made the removal process a lot easier. And then I thought, well, if neutral scent works why not relaxing scents? The scented one-the one you had-they’re all nice, relaxing scents to help me sleep or destress.”

“Destress?”

“Well, not all of us like to party every night, Poppy.”

Smiling she turned her head to peer at him over her shoulder. She batted her lashes and sweetly asked, “So what made you decide to add floral and glitter?”

Immediately Branch felt the color drain from his face. Self-consciousness overtook him at once and he stood up straight, fiddling with the edge of his vest. “Well, yeah, I wanted to see what else could work.”

“So you decided to make, what, twenty or so?” Poppy’s grin widened and he shifted uncomfortably. “Do you use them often? The glittery ones, not the relaxing ones.”

“Of course not!” Branch snapped quickly-too quickly. She erupted into giggles at once, pulling her arm from the tub to cover her mouth to muffle the sound. A dark blue blush covered his cheeks as he waved her off. “Yeah, okay, conversation over. Enjoy your bath, Poppy.”

“The bath you made possible by making pretty glittery bath fizzles for yourself! Thanks, Branch!” Poppy giggled until he was finally from her view. Still amused she dropped her towel and climbed in. The smell was fragrant, the scent of poppies and jasmine drifting up. It was nice, certainly, and the glitter looked pretty on the water but didn’t stick to her skin any. The color looked nice, too, and made it a bit harder to see through the water which she imagined was nice if one was covered with mud (and made the tub also covered in mud).

After rinsing her hair out and enjoying the bath until the water cooled she climbed out and toweled off, watching the tub drain. If she was being honest she loved his home. Being underground felt cozy and safe. Not to mention that now that he let her help the walls had a little more on them now. The bedroom door was surrounded by creeping vine flowers that lit up at dusk so there was a dim glow. It had seemed to Branch that she didn’t really like being entirely in the dark anymore and their first few nights together in his place had been interrupted by her waking up in the middle of the night, crying out. After the installation of the flowers she seemed to wake less and if she did wake she seemed to calm down much faster. Not that Poppy knew his true reasoning as he had pretended it was because she thought they were pretty. There was a dresser against the far wall and Poppy made her way over to it. The top drawer was vests, the middle shorts, and the bottom was her own. Half of it was dresses, half was pajamas. Although she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to stay, as she hadn’t asked, she pulled pajamas out anyway. The soft tank top and shorts felt nice on her newly washed skin. And her skin, for that matter, felt much softer than it had before her bath. Delightful. Taking a comb from the top of the dresser she ran it through her hair as she filled the tub back up for his turn. 

Branch was back on the floor when she came back to the living room, only now he was drawing and writing notes on a grid paper. He looked up when he heard her open the bedroom door. If he minded about her dressing for sleep he didn’t say anything. Instead he only smiled a little sheepishly.

“How was it?”

At once her face broke out into a grin and he regretted asking her at all. “Delightful, thank you, Branch. I’m impressed, really. My skin and hair is so soft, here!” She hopped across, stopping just short of falling into his lap. Holding her hand out to him she waited until he begrudgingly stroked her arm. “See? So nice. And the glitter didn’t stick to me at all! Perfect for a nice, relaxing, bath I think! I set the bath up for you, so you better hurry before it gets cold.” Poppy leaned down, pressing her lips to the tip of his nose. “Go, go, go!”

Sighing and trying not to smile and roll his eyes he hopped to his feet. “Don’t touch my blueprints, you hear?”

“Yeah, yeah.” She flapped her hands at him, “Get going, Grumpy Goose.” Her teasing was met with a snort and off he went. She flopped onto the couch and stared absently at the wall for a moment. There was a bookcase on the wall beside the couch and she went to inspect it. Among the popular novels were blank-sided books that she imagined were full of blueprints for his houses. She selected a children’s book and fell back onto the couch with a huff. Flipping absently through the pages she kicked her legs over the side of the couch and hummed a song under her breath. Branch watched her from the doorway to the bedroom.

“You know, you can sing louder than that.”

Poppy started, dropping the book onto her chest. He chuckled and crossed the room to sit beside her. Tentatively she rested her head in his lap once he was settled and as a sign that it was okay he gently stroked her hair with one hand while he picked her book up with his other. Quirking an eyebrow at her she shrugged, smiling brightly.

“You bathe quick.”

“It’s easy when your bathbombs work for you.”

“Your what now?” Poppy asked curiously, playing with the button on his pajama shirt absently. It seemed that lately every time they were alone the air between them got a little electric. Not that she minded, but she was curious if he noticed or cared since he didn’t seem to be doing anything to alleviate it. Even now he stared at the book she had been flipping through instead of looking at her while all she could do was stare up at him.

“Oh,” Branch smiled down at her, breaking his gaze from the book to glance at her. Quickly he looked away, “That’s what I call them, cause they fizzle and ‘explode’ in the water, you know? Like fireworks.”

“I like them.”

“Me too.”

Comfortable silence stretched between them and he set the book to the side so he could put his hand on her stomach instead. Her hand closed over his. Being quiet wasn’t all bad now that she had someone to enjoy it with, she found. Before it was hard, even when it was with friends, but with Branch she found it to be a lot easier to let everything fall away and just enjoy the company of her friend. So it was to her surprise that he was the one to break his favorite sound in the world by singing quietly to her.

Branch’s voice was low in volume but just as full as it ever was:  
“At last,  
My love has come along  
My lonely days are over  
And life is like a song…”

While he paused to inhale Poppy broke in:

“At last,  
The skies above are blue  
My heart was wrapped in clover  
The night I looked at you.”

As they rested his eyes had drifted closed but by the second note of her singing back he had snapped them open and stared down at her. Oh, she loved duets, they were so romantic. Smiling, she opened her mouth to ask him what the stunned look was for. He overlapped her.

“Why are you singing that song?”  
“Is everything okay?”

Poppy giggled and gestured for him to go first. The poor guy was blushing again and it seemed that lately she couldn’t see him without him blushing a million times. Slowly he asked again and she waved her hand.

“You started it!”

“What?” Branch groaned and put his face in his hand, “I-ugh-I’m sorry, Poppy. It seems lately I’m kind of a mess whenever I get around you.”

She reached up to gently stroke his cheek and when he looked down at her he was met with a small smile. Just as he started to relax she sang out to him softly:

“You smiled, you smiled  
Oh, and then the spell was cast.” 

Poppy looked up at him, clearly waiting for him to finish the song for her. Shifting uncomfortably he turned his gaze from hers but obliged:

“And here we are in Heaven  
For you are mine,  
At last”

Gently she sat up on one arm and pulled his face to hers, gently pressing her lips to his. Despite being incredibly embarrassed Branch didn’t fight it. His hand went to her cheek, where he brushed some hair from her face. They pulled apart and Branch smiled a bit wider before hauling her up into his arms. 

“Alright, that’s it. Let’s go, Princess.”

Squealing, Poppy cried out, “Where?”

“Bed! I can’t be caught singing sappy love songs due to sleep deprivation!” 

“But I like sappy love songs!”

Branch rolled his eyes but kissed her cheek, “I know. That’s why I need to be awake so I can sing them proper and on purpose.”

Delighted, Poppy relaxed in his arms as he carted her off to the bedroom. He tossed her onto her side before climbing into his side and pulling her close against him. Nuzzling his nose into the nape of her neck he was glad he picked the bathbomb that smelled like poppies for her. It didn’t matter if she never knew he’d made the glitter and pretty ones for her because he was going to reap the benefits anyway. Nothing had ever smelled sweeter than his pretty Poppy.


End file.
